Status Quo Co., a/k/a “the most average company in the world,” does not exist. It’s a fake company we made up to exemplify the sort of nondescript, American corporation where too many of us toil away at jobs we only barely understand. It is, literally, the “status quo of work” that Mural is trying to overturn.

At Atlassian Team ’24 in Las Vegas, we got a chance to bring Status Quo Co. to life with a going-away party for (nonexistent) employee Denise Esperanza that promoted both our brand messaging and our recently released research report, The Real, Actual, No BS State of Teamwork in 2024.

Within a few short weeks, we conceptualized, designed, scripted, and built an immersive event that took guests inside the offices of Status Quo Co., complete with a cubicle farm step-and-repeat, a recreation of Denise’s desk, an ASCII-art photo booth, and an absurd award ceremony with itty-bitty teeny-weeny trophies.

When guests entered, they became Status Quo Co. employees, with new names and job titles provided by door man, Terry LaPorte (a/k/a yours truly). We hired a brilliant team of improv comics to portray Denise’s coworkers, including one guest who was stuck on a conference call throughout the entire party. The devil was in the details and we included a hell of a lot of them, including demotivational posters, pages from the employee handbook, email exchanges, in-world signage, custom drinks, an atrocious PowerPoint display, and a cake (not for human consumption.)

In addition, we created an in-world campaign for the event that came direct from Management, building the world of Status Quo Co. and building excitement for the main event.

The kicker: Denise never showed up for her own party. I mean, of course she didn’t. She wasn’t real.